Administration, Core Financials, and Project Accounting

[CDNuser]

Hello

We are having a hard time reconciling GL trial balance to transaction lines due to the TB using post date. We use transaction dates to manage our business in MAS.

We post in batches which cross periods at times, so our post date isn't always the same as transaction date.

Can anyone provide insight in similar expereinces? Why does MAS have a difference between post and transaction dates?

Thanks

Jean-Paul

[snolte]

HI Jean-Paul;

To simplifiy it for my non-accounting coworkers, I tell them this; The most important things to remember are:

Post date = GL = Monthly Reporting Figures

Transaction Date = Subledgers = Informational Purposes

While some people do pull reporting on their transaction date data, and the transaction dates sometimes play a bigger role than that, if you're reconciling anything to the GL then you need to be sure to close off your batches at those cut-off dates.

Some of the items I can think of off the top of my head;

Post dates are used due to the batching process - you have to decide where to lump all the transactions

Transaction dates are used for AP and AR aging, due date calculations etc.

Transaction dates are used for foreign exchange calculations (since they can be changed daily)

Transaction dates are important for bank reconciliations - if the transaction date falls after the end statement date it will not show in your reconciliation.

I'm not sure specifically which module you're having issue with, but here we do daily batches in the modules where this could cause issue (mostly in AR).  We back date it to post on the prior day then select all the invoices for that day in the batch.  Similarly, we commit all shipments daily so that the invoice date pulls through as the shipping date, and thus the transaction date on the invoice.

Hope this helps some.  Good luck!

Sarah

[CDNuser]

Sarah, this helps greatly! I'm still struggling with why Sage would split the post and transaction date - I've never worked in an ERP that splits them. Why would anyone want to allow difference in dates....that can make reconciling ledger and subledger so difficult? Thanks again! Jean-Paul

[snolte]

I think that generally batch based systems work really well as they allow you to post transactions as often as you'd like.  If you post everything as it's completed, there's less room to catch errors before transactions are posted, and with these systems reversing them is not as simple as clicking a button.  Really it comes down to company preference for the volume of transactions.

It would definitely be important for high-volume bank reconciliations.  We reconcile our banks daily so it isn't an issue for us, but if we left it all month we'd definitely rely more heavily on transaction dates to complete the reconciliations.  You could input all your bank transactions into their own batch but this could be cumbersome depending on your volume - we use one batch for every few days of miscellaneous transactions.

For AR invoicing if you have a high volume of transactions you likely want to post them daily, but if you're a lower volume you could wait and post once per week.  The invoices still need to age based on when the goods were shipped or the service was performed (thus why you still need the transaction date).  The invoice date allows this to happen and the revenue is recognized in the General Ledger based on the posting date.  The invoice date also helps to populate the built in cash forecasting (this is in AP and AR).

AP vouchers need to be paid based on the due date calculated from the invoice date and the vendor's terms you set up, but you wouldn't want to be entering a batch for one voucher (and in some instances backdating them).  The expenses post to the GL based on the batch posting date, but the invoices still age and calculate for payment selection based on the invoice date.  For example, if you receive an invoice on October 13/11 dated September 13/11 with 30 day terms, you still need the system to recognize the invoice date of September 13 so that it will prompt you to pay it on time... if the transaction date was the posting date you would be paying it a month late.  If you backdate and post the invoices with the transaction date you're definitely going to end up with changing financial reports (which doesn't usually make the accountants happy!)

Most batch-based ERP's I've worked with are like this.  I think that while it may take a bit of getting used to, if you prepare the batch with a cutoff date that lines up with your fiscal periods you just have to remember to close them off once everything is input for that period.  We have minimal issues with reconciliations - we use the explorers a lot for these, as you can look for transactions with post dates and trans dates that are before or after a certain date.  That's usually our issue.

If you still have issues perhaps your reseller could give you some additional training or insight into the modules you're struggling with most.  I think once you get one down, the rest will follow!

Cheers,

Sarah

[jnoll]

They do provide you with the option to make the dates the same by changing the User Preferences "Use Transaction Date for Post Date". Why do they allow this you ask, to accommodate many businesses. With that said it allows you to also meet your requirements.

This can be found in System Manager -> Tools -> User Preferences. You do need to have this set at each user.

[snolte]

This is true, Joe, but does this apply everywhere in the system?  We have this option checked off but I thought it was only for committing sales order transactions, it uses the transaction date for the posting date (and this can also be unchecked when you go into Commit Sales Orders).  When we create a new batch the transaction date always defaults to the post date of the batch but it can still be overridden (transaction and post dates).

I'd be interested to know if there's a way to do this for all modules.  Then again, I have SysAdmin access and perhaps have never noticed...

Sarah